THE Cheshire Cat is famous the world over. BEN COULBECK and MATHIEU WARWOOD ask if there is more marketing potential in the iconic feline?

CHESHIRE’s famous grinning cat will be perched on silver screens across the globe as a new blockbuster version of Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp is released next year.

The Cheshire cat is the most iconic symbol of the county and is recognised across the world.

The character is widely used by businesses and organisations associated with Cheshire and was made famous by Lewis Carroll’s fairytale Alice in Wonderland.

The cat’s grinning face and winking eye can be seen on the Cheshire Cheese website, at the Cheshire Cat pub in Christleton and both Cheshire Oaks and Cheshire Building Society have regularly used the cat as a mascot.

Other UK regions enjoy the Kudos in terms of visitor numbers that world literary figures and fictional characters bring.

The Lake District has poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Yorkshire Moors has the Bronte Sisters and Shropshire has A A Housman, who have all helped the branding and marketing of their respective patches.

The Cheshire Cat may prove elusive for tourism board Visit Chester and Cheshire who believe Chester and the county have other brands to attract visitors to the region.

VCC told the Chronicle that the symbol had little marketing value.

Public relations executive Caroline Hoppé said: “We do not use the Cheshire Cat as a branding or marketing tool as ultimately this will not attract visitors.

“We have to offer visitors a reason why Cheshire is so special. The Cheshire Cat just does not represent why the county is such a fantastic destination.”

The cat is set to be revamped further by director Tim Burton’s 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland which will star Johnny Depp.

The tale’s creator Carroll was raised in Daresbury, 18 miles from Chester, where All Saints Church has the grinning Cheshire Cat’s face depicted in its stained-glass windows.

Alternative theories of the cat’s origin also include the manufacturing of Cheshire Cheese where the moulds used resembled the shape of the cat. Also when Chester had a port, ships arriving from London, often carrying mice or rats, would be met by hungry Cheshire cats waiting to pounce.